[JPJones]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Dawktah)

My wife no longer wants to dive in the cold water lakes or quarry. I am game for drysuit and learning about CCR locally. We will have to see what is in store for us in the next 18 months. Once we decide to try to have a child I'll be diving on my own so may recruit a buddy locally and pursue CCR. So I guess I'll ask a few questions I have here.

1. I have improved my SAC significantly over the 27 dives but only CCR will keep me down longer than my wife! Is this a safe practice to be diving CCR while your buddy is diving OC?

2. Can you donn a CCR in the water attached to a tether? This is the OC technique I am using now from a 15ft. RIB. I am not sure when I'll be able to afford a larger one 20-25ft. Even then I don't know how easy or difficult it will be to donn a CCR on board and roll in.

3. Is the Sonolime (sp?) special for diving or is it (can you use) standard soda lime that is used in Anesthesia?

4. Is there a CCR that the mouthpiece and HUD is better suited to use with a camera?

5. Do you need to start with SCR and then go to CCR, or can you just start with CCR?

6. Are the gas cylinders/valves unit specific or are they standard Al diving cylinders? Do the cylinders follow the same annual viz and 5 year hydro req.?

More to come...

--Chris

Get your wife one too and take your class together. It will make diving up there a lot warmer for both of you. Plus getting her one will save you some cold nights on the couch.

You should be able to dive off a small boat as good on CCR as OC.

There is no reason to start on SCR if you want to start simple get a Sport KISS. But for thaking pictures I would get an Optima for the HUD. I would not do a working dive without a Hud.

The cylinder are the same a OC just smaller.

[Gill Envy]

Quote: (Originally Posted by JPJones)

Get your wife one too and take your class together. It will make diving up there a lot warmer for both of you. Plus getting her one will save you some cold nights on the couch.

You should be able to dive off a small boat as good on CCR as OC.

There is no reason to start on SCR if you want to start simple get a Sport KISS. But for thaking pictures I would get an Optima for the HUD. I would not do a working dive without a Hud.

The cylinder are the same a OC just smaller.

not to mention, while she has one in the oven, you will have a back up set of electronics for at least 9 months!! But i'd have to say, having my wife get a rebreather too may have actually increased the incidence of cold nights on the couch.

you have a great set of questions. have a search around the archives for some answeres and don't be afraid to list them individually in the "new to rebreathers" part of the forum for general discussion.

welcome to rebreather world!!

[Mixaddict]

Highly recomend a CCR with HUD for photography. Pretty easy to forget what you're up to when you are chasing that last incredible pic!

[Dawktah]

Quote: (Originally Posted by bendomatic)

Hi

...we "ungear" at the end of the dive in the water and have someone haul it out or clip it off (if you trust a clip!), then swim in with fins on...
rachel

ok the boat is MHDs.

I began my water adventures as a sailor. They are expensive but I use snap shackles on the end of my tethers. The D-ring on BCD/CCR will fail before shackle. I also have a smaller one of my dive housing tether.

--Chris

[bendomatic]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Dawktah)

I began my water adventures as a sailor. They are expensive but I use snap shackles on the end of my tethers. The D-ring on BCD/CCR will fail before shackle. I also have a smaller one of my dive housing tether.

--Chris

Yep we use snaps as well, you just have to be vigilant that yes it is actually clipped off. watching gear sink to the bottom is not a happy sight for anyone involved

enjoy your diving, i'm loving the move to CCR, wish my camera would now work properly, i think i've got some water in it.

rachel

[Skipbreather]

Hi Dawktah-

Welcome to the board!

You just do NOT know how totally lucky you are to have immediate access to the Great Lakes in general and Lake Michigan in particular. The wreck diving is absolutely AWESOME! Yes, a dry suit is needed for anyone beyond a teenager's metabolism, but it is worth it.

There are some great wrecks- with stunning historical value- right in Chicago’s back yard, and just up the road off of Milwaukee is the arguably most dived wreck in the Great Lakes, the Prinz Wilhelm V. The Great Lakes are NOT the place for a 15 ft RIB, but there are plenty of dive charter operators eager for your trade. Figure on anywhere from $75 to $150 per outing. If you’ve actually operated your own Lake Michigan capable boat, as I do, you KNOW that price is cost effective.

When you move up to CCR, the warm moist gas is a true blessing in our frigid waters. Also, the wrecks in depths only slightly beyond the “single aluminum 80 recreational OC” divers become MUCH more accessible.

Have fun-
Ken

[Dawktah]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Skipbreather)

Hi Dawktah-

You just do NOT know how totally lucky you are to have immediate access to the Great Lakes in general and Lake Michigan in particular. . The Great Lakes are NOT the place for a 15 ft RIB, but there are plenty of dive charter operators eager for your trade.

Ken

Even though I can see the Lake right outside my window my wife and I don't dive in it. She has no interest in diving in cold water. We both dive in the Caribbean where I keep the 15ft. RIB.

One other question is it too much task loading to use two bailout bottles, or is this discussed more in a course? Most photos I see of CCR the diver isn't carrying a bailout bottle. Where is it? Can you clip on a small less cumbersome cylinder and leave a larger complete bailout on the descent line? I was in the process of deciding on the design for my descent line. I was going to make it 100' long. Make it now and not make one in the future.

--Chris